Friday, 14 November 2014

found: HEMA

If you already know about HEMA, then you'll already know that it's one of the BEST shops in the UK at the moment - and if you've never heard of it before, hold on to your bank cards! A Dutch retailer that's been likened to both Tiger and IKEA, but with a lot more categories, it's pretty much craft and homeware heaven.

The first UK store opened earlier this year, and then the online shop followed soon afterwards; I was lucky enough to receive a £25 gift voucher to test out the e-store, and ended up going way over budget (surprise!). They manage to successfully mix food, drink and kitchenware with home accessories, crafting goods and even clothes and beauty goods; I think my favourite find was the bag in the top photo, though - being a crafter and writer the slogan really made me smile, and the neon waterproof lining was genius (because how often do tote bags end up being completely ineffective in the rain?!). I also chose a few simple wooden toys for the kiddos Christmas stockings, some geometric patterned cloud-shape iron-on patches and a good selection of printed tape. The one thing that really stood out to me was the price point - the bag was £10, and was the most expensive thing of all; think around £2-3 for a double pack of washi tape, £1.25 for a tube of acrylic paint and £4 for a small metal storage basket. The website is incredibly easy to navigate, and delivery was really quick as well - I'm not a patient shopper, so this won extra points with me!

They've also got a REALLY good festive decoration section, full of all my favourite colours and patterns; turquoise honeycomb balls, multi-coloured star garlands, sparkly gold diamonds and various festive tapes. The only this is that they tend to sell our fairly quickly in a lot of things - so if you see something you like, it's best to grab it there and then!

I was sent a £25 gift voucher for the purpose of the review, but as usual all thoughts and opinions are my own - and quite frankly, I would have bought everything anyway!